EFCC to monitor Nigerian League

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will beam its searchlight on the Nigeria Football Premier League to ensure that the best practices and global standards are in vogue.
This was announced Monday by Sports Minister and Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Mallam Bolaji Abdulahi at a ministerial platform where he presented his mid-term report on the achievements of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
He said that NSC, the office of the Attorney General of the Federation, and EFCC, would set up a special committee to monitor premier league matches across the nation.
Abdulahi said that match fixing is a criminal offense as the federal government would now prosecute those involved in the dirty practice.
"We want to restore the confidence of investors by bringing the spectators to the stadium and if we find anybody who has taken part or connived to fix a game in anyway, we are going to treat the case as a criminal offence and the law will take its full course," Abdulahi vowed.
The action plan was to curtail the culture of match fixing which has deep roots in Asia, Europe and other parts of the world from spreading to Nigeria.
Abdulahi said that the quality of the Nigerian league had witnessed a marked improvement since the formation of the League Management Company (L.MC) as the pressure on home teams to win at all cost is gradually becoming a thing of the past.
He said the integrity of the game would be compromised as long as people cannot go to watch the game because they believe that the outcome of that game has been predetermined.
Abdulahi, who said Nigeria deserved a virile and robust league that will provide entertainment and employment, decried the exodus of Nigerian youths who flock to Oriental countries like Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Iran, among others countries to eke a living as professional footballers even when such countries don't have structures that promote professional football.
He said the uncontrolled traffic has not only compromised standard, but has led some of the youths into jails in China as some of them ended up as drug traffickers.

Culled from Thisday

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